Holy hell! Did I just fry my HDD?

AZReDWiNG

Member
Jan 11, 2006
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So I was running Prime95 last night and into this morning. I noted that the screen would flicker on/off once in a while, so I decided to clock down. I went into the BIOS, clocked down from 240x11 to 235x11, then restarted.

After POSTing, the computer reboots itself and POSTs again.

>_<

So I immediately reset all overclocks to default and tried again. Nothing.
So I reset the CMOS and tried again. Nothing.

I plugged a different SATA cable into a different SATA port, and used a different SATA power-cable converter. Each time, it goes to the menu saying "your computer failed to..." or whatever and gives you the options to load Windows normally, use the last known good configuration, etc. All choices lead to a reboot.

The BIOS sees the HDD fine on both SATA1 and SATA3 (the other port I plugged into).

What is going on?
 

TSS

Senior member
Nov 14, 2005
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did you have your HDD on sata port 1 when OCing?

it seems on some mobo's ports 1 and 2 arent properly locked. so if your memory fails and sends back wrong data to the HDD, it corrupts your windows. i hear just about every OCer has had to install windows again atleast once :p in the future use ports 3-4, those seem to be ok.

have you tried a complete format and reinstalling windows?
 

AZReDWiNG

Member
Jan 11, 2006
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Originally posted by: TSS
did you have your HDD on sata port 1 when OCing?

it seems on some mobo's ports 1 and 2 arent properly locked. so if your memory fails and sends back wrong data to the HDD, it corrupts your windows. i hear just about every OCer has had to install windows again atleast once :p in the future use ports 3-4, those seem to be ok.

have you tried a complete format and reinstalling windows?

I have not. I just got home and I've got places to be for the next few days =(

What is interesting is that my memory was fine. I ran MemTest86 for quite a while and it passed.

By the way, I have an Athlon X2 4200+ on an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe.

EDIT: Attempting a repair installation of XP now. I hope this works; it would be hell to have to pull all the data off my other drives. I've done it before, it just sucks.

EDIT2: When it tries to load XP for the first time it shows the boot screen, then quickly flashes a BSOD and reboots. Is this FUBARed?
 

DetroitSportsFan

Senior member
Oct 19, 2004
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EDIT2: When it tries to load XP for the first time it shows the boot screen, then quickly flashes a BSOD and reboots. Is this FUBARed?

Thats usually a sign that your OS is corrupted. At this point, I'd gather your HDD lived, but your OS files aren't any good.
 

Quinton McLeod

Senior member
Jan 17, 2006
375
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0
Originally posted by: AZReDWiNG
So I was running Prime95 last night and into this morning. I noted that the screen would flicker on/off once in a while, so I decided to clock down. I went into the BIOS, clocked down from 240x11 to 235x11, then restarted.

After POSTing, the computer reboots itself and POSTs again.

>_<

So I immediately reset all overclocks to default and tried again. Nothing.
So I reset the CMOS and tried again. Nothing.

I plugged a different SATA cable into a different SATA port, and used a different SATA power-cable converter. Each time, it goes to the menu saying "your computer failed to..." or whatever and gives you the options to load Windows normally, use the last known good configuration, etc. All choices lead to a reboot.

The BIOS sees the HDD fine on both SATA1 and SATA3 (the other port I plugged into).

What is going on?


First of all... What system are you running? What parts are in it?

 

Mik3y

Banned
Mar 2, 2004
7,089
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Originally posted by: Quinton McLeod
Originally posted by: AZReDWiNG
So I was running Prime95 last night and into this morning. I noted that the screen would flicker on/off once in a while, so I decided to clock down. I went into the BIOS, clocked down from 240x11 to 235x11, then restarted.

After POSTing, the computer reboots itself and POSTs again.

>_<

So I immediately reset all overclocks to default and tried again. Nothing.
So I reset the CMOS and tried again. Nothing.

I plugged a different SATA cable into a different SATA port, and used a different SATA power-cable converter. Each time, it goes to the menu saying "your computer failed to..." or whatever and gives you the options to load Windows normally, use the last known good configuration, etc. All choices lead to a reboot.

The BIOS sees the HDD fine on both SATA1 and SATA3 (the other port I plugged into).

What is going on?


First of all... What system are you running? What parts are in it?

Assuming you properly checked all the hardware for any signs of damage, it's most likely to be a software issue. I think you have extreme data corruption on your OS, so a full reformat should do the trick. It's highly unlikely your HDD fried. You told me before, but I forgot: what psu are you running? I think it might have crapped out on you from the intense OC. I recommend you start to back up your data and consider reformatting. It'll make your life easier. Like TSS said, most OCers have had to reinstall Windows again after an unfortunate attempt at overclocking. Just a few days ago, I OCed my system even further and every application I had set startup upon windows boot crapped out on me. Luckily, my situation wasn't anywhere near extreme as yours, but I do have some permanent data corruption now, since my system still craps out once in a while.
 

thecoolnessrune

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2005
9,673
583
126
Originally posted by: AZReDWiNG
So I was running Prime95 last night and into this morning. I noted that the screen would flicker on/off once in a while, so I decided to clock down. I went into the BIOS, clocked down from 240x11 to 235x11, then restarted.

After POSTing, the computer reboots itself and POSTs again.

>_<

So I immediately reset all overclocks to default and tried again. Nothing.
So I reset the CMOS and tried again. Nothing.

I plugged a different SATA cable into a different SATA port, and used a different SATA power-cable converter. Each time, it goes to the menu saying "your computer failed to..." or whatever and gives you the options to load Windows normally, use the last known good configuration, etc. All choices lead to a reboot.

The BIOS sees the HDD fine on both SATA1 and SATA3 (the other port I plugged into).

What is going on?


Had this happen a couple weeks ago. But it was on a IDE drive. tried an overclock. The generic crap PSU burned and crashed the comp. Reset CMOS. nothing. Finall got it to POST but Windows would reboot each time i selected Last know good configuration or any other option for that matter. Had to reinstall Windows and lose all the data to get things to work again. Your PSU may have been damaged. I placed the HD in my other comp and could salvage a few files but some how most were screwed and unretrievable.
 

Mik3y

Banned
Mar 2, 2004
7,089
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RedWing, what voltage did your run your system at when it was overclocked? Also, what were its fluctuations when under load? Many people have had instability with cheap PSU's when overclocking and when switched to a higher quality PSU, everything ran fine. Ultra X-Connect is not a weak PSU brand in terms of power, but they are known for unreliability. They have a pretty high failure rate under long terms of stress as I've read in several reviews before. Half may run strong and last you a long time, and the other half may need to rely on viagra to keep up and at it. Just my 2 cents.
 

ajikan

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2005
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I think it's a software issue. the same thing happened to my hard drive a while ago.
I used Norton Ghost, too, to copy all the files out to another hard drive, and used FDISK to reformat the bad HD. and it worked perfectly fine after that.
 

Doctorweir

Golden Member
Sep 20, 2000
1,689
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Originally posted by: AZReDWiNG
Okay, so everything in my computer is back to the way it was. Hurrah for Norton Ghost!

You have a current ghost image of your system and bothered about re-installing Windows? :confused:
Anyway, thumbs up it works again and also thumbs up for regular hdd-images...that's what I do, too. XP-Reinstall sucks...takes weeks until all the little goodoes are installed again... ;)

 

Mik3y

Banned
Mar 2, 2004
7,089
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0
Originally posted by: Doctorweir
Originally posted by: AZReDWiNG
Okay, so everything in my computer is back to the way it was. Hurrah for Norton Ghost!

You have a current ghost image of your system and bothered about re-installing Windows? :confused:
Anyway, thumbs up it works again and also thumbs up for regular hdd-images...that's what I do, too. XP-Reinstall sucks...takes weeks until all the little goodoes are installed again... ;)

he was half-way through backing up his hard drive wtih norton ghost when his computer collapsed on him, hence the reason why he couldnt just ghost it back and had to reformat. he's my cousin btw. this is why i know.
 

AZReDWiNG

Member
Jan 11, 2006
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Originally posted by: Mik3y
Originally posted by: Doctorweir
Originally posted by: AZReDWiNG
Okay, so everything in my computer is back to the way it was. Hurrah for Norton Ghost!

You have a current ghost image of your system and bothered about re-installing Windows? :confused:
Anyway, thumbs up it works again and also thumbs up for regular hdd-images...that's what I do, too. XP-Reinstall sucks...takes weeks until all the little goodoes are installed again... ;)

he was half-way through backing up his hard drive wtih norton ghost when his computer collapsed on him, hence the reason why he couldnt just ghost it back and had to reformat. he's my cousin btw. this is why i know.

..Yeah, I had Ghosts from like 3 weeks ago after I got this setup and I had to pull off those.. And there wasn't a Ghost of the C:\ drive in any case..
 

AZReDWiNG

Member
Jan 11, 2006
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Originally posted by: Mik3y
RedWing, what voltage did your run your system at when it was overclocked? Also, what were its fluctuations when under load? Many people have had instability with cheap PSU's when overclocking and when switched to a higher quality PSU, everything ran fine. Ultra X-Connect is not a weak PSU brand in terms of power, but they are known for unreliability. They have a pretty high failure rate under long terms of stress as I've read in several reviews before. Half may run strong and last you a long time, and the other half may need to rely on viagra to keep up and at it. Just my 2 cents.

VCore was set to 1.45V. The fluctuation on the VCore was ~1.4-1.5, and the fluctuation on the +12V line was from 11.85-12.1.